Attempt to update Godzilla genre is strictly for aficionados of violent video games

Rating: 2/10 (5 December 2013)

'Pacific Rim', noted director Guillermo Del Toro's attempt to update the old Japanese Godzilla monster genre, can best be described as a colossal waste of money. The setting is a decade from now. The monsters, called Kaiijus, have escaped from an inter-dimensional rift on the ocean floor and wreak havoc all over earth. In response, mankind have developed Jaegers, giant humanoid contraptions, piloted by two humans, who work in tandem via a mind meld of sorts. We're introduced to Raleigh Becket, a former Jaeger pilot who lost his brother while they were battling one of the Kaiijus a few years before. Becket is called out of retirement as the commander of the Jaegers, Stacker Pentecost, believes he's the best for the job.
Right off the bat, the plot makes little sense. The Jaeger program is discontinued as the giant machines are no match for the overpowering Kaiijus. Instead, the powers that be decide to construct giant walls to protect earth's population from the monsters. The only problem is that the walls are completely flimsy and collapse after the first Kaiiju attack. Why then did they believe the walls would work at all?
Despite the order to discontinue the Jaeger program, Pentecost seeks to throw one last 'Hail Mary' by dropping a thermonuclear bomb into the rift, cutting off the Kaiiju's portal to earth. Instead of simply showing one big monster battle after another, most of Act II involves finding a new partner for Becket. He ends up with Mako Mori, a Japanese director of a Jaeger refurbishment project, who also happens to be Pentecost's adopted daughter. Mori wants to team up with Becket, but her over protective parent, Pentecost, is against it.
Mori almost blows her chance when memories of a Kaiiju killing her parents interferes with the mind meld with Becket, causing the Jaeger they're testing, to go berserk. If this isn't enough, there's also a sub-plot concerning two scientists, one of whom, Geiszler, establishes a mental link with the Kaiiju brain. He goes to Hong Kong where he meets up with Chau, played by an over the top Ron Perlman, who is a black market dealer in Kaiiju body parts. Keiszler figures out that the good guys can only gain access to the portal if the Kaiiju recognize their own DNA.
No need to rehash the rest of the plot. It's pretty obvious that the good guys manage to drop the bomb into the portal and cut off the Kaiiju access. Of course there's a whole bunch of boring Monster-Humanoid battle scenes before that, probably most enjoyed by aficionados of violent video games.
Pacific Rim didn't do that well at the box office here in the US but cleaned up overseas. Casting pretty Japanese Rinko Kakuchi as the co-star was a brilliant casting move, which undoubtedly had a lot to do with the film's success in the Asian market.
In the end, Pacific Rim is a pointless attempt to update the Godzilla genre. The action sequences are repetitious and the human drama is stilted and predictable. The only thing I enjoyed in the entire film is when Ron Perlman cuts himself out of the baby Kaiiju, during the post-credit sequence. That at least WAS amusing!